THE PORT RAIL: The origins of political correctness

Given that Duck Commander Phil Robertson has become the target-of-the-day of politically correct warriors, I thought it helpful to go back over how PC came into today’s lexicon and political wars.

By Larry Clayton

Given that Duck Commander Phil Robertson has become the target-of-the-day of politically correct warriors, I thought it helpful to go back over how PC came into today’s lexicon and political wars.It came into use in the arcane ideological wars between socialists and hard-core communists 60 or 70 years ago. Socialists accused communists of being wedded to the “party line,” unwilling to flex a bit and think for themselves. What came out from communist central was thus “politically correct,” and socialists charged communists for their slavish obedience to the party.The term was adapted into mainstream American argot in the 1970s and 1980s to mean something different than some remote ideological debate among socialists and communists.The communists were obviously inflexible dogmatists, the perfect politically correct ideologues, come hell or high water.From mid-20th century onward, a number of new social and political agendas drove through American life, including the rise of feminism (gender), the civil rights movement (race), sexual orientation (homosexuality), immigration (more race), multiculturalism, affirmative action and others. Among those who claim to be PC, usually with a very liberal agenda, and those who fling the charge at them of being inflexible dogmatists, usually from a conservative point of view, the goal is to gain the high ground, to demonstrate that your agenda or set of values or principles is correct. The other guy is just spewing venom and ignorance. So the PC wars have grown pretty divisive. Language often defines the PC battles, and as the PC warriors strive to include all minorities and interest groups in their camp, the debates sometimes take ludicrous turns as one observer on the Internet commented.“Someone shouted at me today for making fun of Jews. He said it was politically incorrect. That was before he found out that I was Jewish, and making fun of ourselves is a part of Jewish culture.” In their effort to offend no one and be totally inclusive of minorities and those formerly outside the mainstream, PC ideologues have invented a new vocabulary. I extracted the following from the Wikipedia entry on political correctness as examples:-- “Intellectually disabled” in place of mentally retarded.-- “African American” in place of black.-- “Native American” in place of Indian.-- Gender-neutral terms such as “firefighter” in place of fireman and firewoman, “police officer” in place of policeman and policewoman.-- Value-free terms describing physical disabilities, such as “visually impaired” in place of blind and “hearing impaired” in place of deaf.-- Value-free cultural terms, such as “Holiday season” and “Winter holiday,” in place of Christmas.The extreme expressions of PC have usually taken place in a very liberal academic culture. It is now politically incorrect to refer to “men” in history, for example. Try something neutral, like humanity. I don’t know if PC has replaced the “Founding Fathers,” but I suspect there is a term that is more gender-neutral. I shudder to think what it may be. Politically correct activists are, ironically, intolerant of criticisms and insist on their truth in the matter. In other words, the very attempt to spread the new multiculturalism with regard to race, gender, minorities, religion, sexual orientation, etc. and so create a more tolerant, open-minded and, one supposes, just society, is intolerant of any points of view that contradict PC principles. If, for example, you are critical of the LGBT community, then you are homophobic. If you are critical of an African American, stand by, you are a racist. If you mention that there are elements in the Koran (now Quran) which encourage killing the enemies of Islam, you are a Christian fanatic and Islamophobe.And so it goes. Labels replace thinking and rationale discourse, and in the public debates, like the talking heads of major media networks for example, pro and anti-PC epithets fly like wasps knocked out of their nests. I can guarantee that I will be dinged for this column, both in public and private communications, because someone is offended.As a WASP (remember, white Anglo-Saxon Protestant) I will no doubt be associated with the old traditional order that ruled the country and needs to be held to account for discrimination, racism, gay-bashing and nativists who want to purify the country of so many immigrants.Alas, I am not only a WASP, but also a Hispanic. I am, like all of us, a child of many different threads. Maybe someday we will move past PC and remember that we live in a land of liberty and opportunity where what defines us is what we do, not who we are. That’s not very PC. That’s a good start.Larry Clayton is a retired professor of history at the University of Alabama.